GLEAMING THE CUBAN

Face-plant by dirty-Slater Kidd lets #7 Spurs skate into 2nd Round, while Cuban’s #2 Mavericks see their season grind to a halt

Once again, Jason Kidd is fleeing the scene of an accident. Last time, he (allegedly) ran away on foot after he crashed his Toyota (Hey! Maybe it was the car’s fault!) Landcruiser into a VW Rabbit. This time, he’s going home prematurely for the Summer, after the “crash” of aged Kidd’s Dallas Mavericks running head-on into the ageless San Antonio Spurs — with the resulting collision leaving obnoxious Dallas Owner Mark Cuban wishing that Kidd had fled before the Series started.

In San Antonio on Thursday night, with the Spurs leading the Series 3-2, Dallas Point Guard and (alleged) former domestic abuser Jason Kidd, from Cal-Berkeley, was supposed to be the calming Veteran influence that the 2nd-Seeded Mavericks needed to get over the hump, instead of getting knocked out in the 1st Round for the 3rd time in 4 years. But Kidd was not a good leader for Dallas, right from the start. On the first play of the game, he committed a shooting foul on Tim Duncan, and then he attempted Dallas’ first shot of the game: A missed 25-footer.

The man with the dirty slate off the court went on to go 1-for-6 from the floor, including 1-4 from 3-point range, as Dallas fell behind by 22 points. The Mavs were able to erase the entire deficit by the 3rd Quarter, WITHOUT A SINGLE POINT FROM KIDD. Jason didn’t score until the 4th Quarter, when he made one outside jumper in the first minute. And while the Spurs were re-taking command of the game down the stretch, Kidd once again went silent, going scoreless for the last 11 minutes of the Mavericks’ season. Kidd ended with only 1 Field Goal, ZERO Free Throws, 2 Turnovers, and 5 Personal Fouls. San Antonio pulled away to win by 10, 97-87, behind 26 from Manu Ginobili.

Honorary Trojan Kidd will be watching on TV as the Spurs take on the Phoenix Suns, who eliminated the Portland Trailblazers on Thursday night. And if Kidd watches the replay of his last game, the last thing he’ll hear the announcers say about him is how awful he was in this series. For the 6 games, Kidd shot 30%, including 28% from IN-side the arc. Kidd’s scoring drought made the Mavs the FIRST 2-SEED EVER to lose to a 7-Seed in the 1st Round, since they went to Best-of-7 Series.

And yes, I’m biased against Kidd for the despicable crimes that he allegedly committed, as well as for his classless behavior in Pauley many years ago, but I’m not the only one accusing Kidd of being a Goat. One of ESPN’s feature articles is all about the disappearing Jasons: Kidd, as well as teammate Jason Terry, an ex-Arizona Wildcat, who also choked in the decisive, win-or-go-home Game 6. Now Kidd, Terry, Mark Cuban, and all the Mavericks, are going home. Early. Let’s see if the Lakers can avoid the same nasty fate. They should, since Kobe’s Karma seems to be in better shape than Kidd’s.

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One last note: Ben Howland signed a Guard named Matt Carlino away from Indiana to come play for the Bruins next year. Howland even convinced Carlino to graduate early and move his Class up to 2010. Carlino was also recruited by Butler and Florida. He averaged only 13 points a game, but supposedly, the team was stocked with talented scorers. As I have pointed out before, I don’t get too into recruiting or high school players, so I don’t really have a comment. And if you look at how a recent #1 recruiting class turned out, you’ll see WHY I don’t get too excited over signings, unless they are Gatorade Players of the Year, and even THAT honor doesn’t guarantee as much as it should.

"GLEAMING THE CUBAN" was published on April 30th, 2010 and is listed in Non-Rivalry News.